Stand-in goalkeeper

It may be that the defining moment of Gordon Bajnai’s premiership of Hungary occurred even before he was appointed in April. It came at the close of a congress of the ruling Socialist party (MSZP), which had just nominated him to replace the recently resigned Ferenc Gyurcsány, and just after Bajnai had completed a speech promising a non-political government solely dedicated to leading the country out of the economic crisis. Suddenly, l’Internationale blared out from the speakers, the delegates joined in enthusiastically and Bajnai was pictured looking on in horror.

The anthem of international socialism had not been played at a party congress for years. Commentators later speculated that it was an unsubtle sign from the big beasts of MSZP to the free-marketeer Bajnai, a technocrat with no real links to the party, that he had better remember who was really in charge.

In the end, it turned out to be a random (but successful) attempt to embarrass Bajnai, a 41-year-old former businessman who says he has no political ambitions beyond this term and clearly does not like the party that nominated him. The incident nonetheless underscored the sense among many observers that Bajnai may be slightly out of his depth in the ruthless world of Hungarian politics.

But Bajnai’s career has seen one success after another. As a pro-reform student leader in the late 1980s, he seemed a natural. He is smart. The mere fact that he has reached the top of the greasy pole suggests he is no push-over. But he is not one of those larger-than-life characters who, like Gyurcsány or opposition leader Viktor Orbán, have dominated Hungarian politics in recent years.

A father-of-three, Bajnai is boyish-looking, with a mild expression and childish handwriting. In business, he always worked for powerful men. At CA-IB, a consultancy that oversaw the privatisation of many Hungarian companies in the 1990s, he was the most junior member of a team whose members have since risen to the top of the Hungarian financial elite. At Wallis, a sprawling business empire that he shaped into a modern holding company, he worked for Tibor Veres, a domineering figure and a major player in the rough-and-tumble of Hungarian business life. For the two years before becoming prime minister, Bajnai was a reasonably competent manager of EU funds and the economy in the government of Gyurcsány, who is one of the most intense political personalities of the decade and an old friend.

“I function best in a team,” Bajnai told a Hungarian magazine. “I’m no lone ranger.” But that also means that the new prime minister, until recently a star goalkeeper in Hungary’s amateur football league, has never really been his own man.

Bajnai exudes a quiet professionalism, probably picked up from his father, a successful businessman in the 1980s, and from dealing with Western investors in the 1990s, when he frequently travelled abroad. His entire posture seems to be in contrast with the rough culture of Hungarian politics, heavy on body contact, less heavy on thoughtful planning and teamwork – virtues that even many critics admit he possesses. Friends say he is an idealist who honestly thinks these skills will bear fruit. Others think he is slightly naive. “I will be judged on my performance,” he said with apparent sincerity after his appointment, adding that voters would approve of his honest efforts.

During his time as minister for EU funds, a post which was potentially a rich source of corruption, his insistence on strict procedures brought him into conflict with the governing parties. Senior figures were uncomfortable with him. “He was clean. As an EU funds minister, they couldn’t get him to channel money to this or that constitu-ency,” says Peter Magyari, a journalist.

Fact File

Curriculum Vitae

1968: Born, Szeged 1991: Graduated from Budapest University of Economics 1995-2000: Executive director and deputy chief executive of CA-IB finance 2000-05: Chief executive of Wallis holding company; president of Budapest airport 2006-09: Head of national development agency, responsible for EU funds 2007-08: Minister for development and local government 2008-09: Minister for development and the economy 2009-: Prime minister of Hungary

The sense among many observers is that Bajnai may be slightly out of his depth in the ruthless world of Hungarian politics

He entered government in 2007, after the Socialist government, whose spending spree had nearly capsized the economy, changed course. The deficit has now fallen from 9.2% of gross domestic product in 2006 to 3.3%. Wider reforms to restructure the public sector were not, however, forthcoming and the credit crisis hit Hungary hard. Neither the governing Socialists nor the opposition Fidesz party could summon the political will to sell a radically lighter state to the Hungarian public – with justification, since entire classes depend on the state in some form. Bajnai nearly resigned earlier this year because he thought that the government’s plans were not radical enough.

His programme, recently approved by a parliament under pressure from the International Monetary Fund, is tougher. It includes cuts to public-sector salaries, pensions and other benefits, an increase in value-added tax, plus a mild tax cut for the middle classes and higher taxes on the wealthy. He got MPs on board by telling them he would not take the job otherwise. They agreed, knowing the alternative was early elections, which the Socialists would surely have lost. Bajnai says these changes are intended in part to boost employment. For its part, the opposition says that Bajnai is a puppet of Gyurcsány, branding his premiership an extension of Gyurcsány’s ruinous rule, for which Bajnai himself was in part responsible. Accusations persist that he is a heartless businessman whose transactions ruined dozens of small entrepreneurs.

Péter Küllo ?i, a former business associate, has told Index, an online newspaper, that it is the challenge of crisis management that excites Bajnai and that his temperament is suited for exactly that role. But it is unclear whether Bajnai can tough it out – or even has the stomach for the fight. With his former source of power, Gyurcsány, now gone and with no real support within the party, Bajnai is at the mercy of the power brokers in the MSZP whom even Gyurcsány found difficult to control.

But Bajnai has one thing going for him. Says one old friend: “In more more normal times, he wouldn’t stand a chance. But because of the economic crisis, things are bad enough for the big boys in the party to close ranks behind him. For them, he is a jolly joker who will implement the crisis programme.”